Today started out pretty good, what with it being the day before vacation and all. All of my classes were relatively laid back. I talked to Adam in the morning. We got report cards, and I pulled off a B in math and got As in everything else. In Latin, we got muffins that were left over from something and Molly and Kevin blatently listened to my ipod for the whole class. (Dave is in South Carolina on a mission trip. He's not actually religious, and neither are most of the kids at his church. They just go and build houses and hang out and play strip poker. Seriously. There are a lot of pretty sketchy stories that come from these mission trips.)
However, we still don't have a bassist for the ska band. So today at lunch I went to the band room to look for this dorky freshman we've worked with before who plays the bass. But he was nowhere to be found. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Hey, is Mike here?
Sarah: No.
Me: Damnit! We need a bassist for our band.
Rob: What?
Me: Oh, Rob, are you already in battle of the bands?
Rob: No.
Me: Want to play bass in a ska band?
Rob: Yeah ok... Wait, hold on a second. Jay, are we doing something for battle of the bands?
Jay: I don't know. I want to though.
Rob: Yeah, we should do something. (Turns back to me.) Um... Then, no. Sorry.
Me: Aw man. Hey Eric, want to be in our band again?
Eric: I thought you dumped me.
Me: No, you quit, remember? (We previously had a conversation where we both argued the opposite thing.)
Eric: No, you dumped me.
Me: Is that a "no"?
Eric: Yeah.
Me: Damnit!
Then I turned around and walked out. But there was something else... Adam had been hanging out in there too, and his arm was around a girl I didn't even recognize. It definately wasn't Nora. This girl's hair was blond. And now that I think about it, it was the same person I got a glimpse of the last time I walked into the band room. That wasn't Nora either.
I walked back into the cafeteria and sat down with Molly and Toby. "Well, Mike's gone, Rob is taken, and Eric is bitter and withholding his assistance. So... Molly, want to be in a ska band?"
"...Ok. You know I don't really play the bass, right? Like, I don't ever practice anymore."
"Yeah, but it's nothing I can't teach you."
"Alright. Maybe you can come over some time before we all have practice and we can work on it."
"Cool." There was a period of silence during which I tried to decide whether what I wanted to say was too awkward to bring up, and then I decided it wasn't and said, "Adam has another girlfriend."
"Another one?" said Molly.
"Another one."
"Wait," said Toby, "Is this the redheaded one?"
"No, this one's blond."
"The one he met in his math class?"
"It was chem. And again, that was the redheaded one."
"Oh, right."
"Do you know her?" said Molly.
"No, I think she's a junior. Again."
"...This actually makes sense, because I heard the redheaded one all upset and yelling about him in the locker room the other day. And I was wondering why she was yelling about him if they were still going out."
"Do you know whether he dumped her or she dumped him?" I said.
"Well, I assume if she was upset like that that he dumped her."
"...That was wierd," said Molly. "Like, I knew her because my friend Zoe knew her, and Zoe told me they were going out and I was just like 'Oh. That's kind of sleazy...'"
"Oh yeah, by the way, way to not tell me about that even though you knew. Nobody ever told me. I just started seeing them around together."
She started to look guilty. "...Well, I didn't want to say anything, because I figured it would be awkward. Like, if you already knew it would be awkward, and if you didn't already know it would also be awkward... Your MOM knew."
"I know. That's who I ended up finally finding it out from." Another pause. "So at this point I'm wondering what it is with me and guys who can't survive without a girlfriend."
"Well, I think you can hardly judge that based off of two experiences," said Molly.
"I think Mark counts as not being able to survive without a girlfriend. He called just a few days ago, you know. He still calls, and we went out TWO YEARS ago. I wasn't home, thank God."
"...That's true though. Adam really can't survive without a girlfriend," said Toby. "I remember how upset he was when Ivy broke up with him - he just couldn't function."
"Really?" I said. "I was in his second block class, and he seemed fine."
"Yeah, but I was in his first block class and he was on the verge of tears," said Molly.
"And for weeks after that he was all mopey during tech crew," said Toby. "And NO ONE'S mopey during tech crew."
"I find this whole thing very wierd," said Molly, "because he always struck me as being kind of awkward and unattractive. And so QUIET. He doesn't seem like the type at all." Soon after that the conversation ended and Molly went back to listening to my ipod... All the songs that she gave me.
In gym we played a dodgeball type game instead of working out. At first I thought it would be Hell, but you got people out of jail by shooting hoops, which apparantly I am very good at (even though I suck at regular basketball.) So I stood there and shot hoops the whole time, and people said "wow, she's extremely good at shooting hoops" and looked impressed and it made me feel a little better.
When I got home I started feeling worse, and even though I practiced the trumpet and sang "pizza day" by the Aquabats at the top of my lungs, I couldn't get myself to feel much better. Then Mark called. That definately made me feel worse. He just bragged and talked about metal shop and complained about how he had another week-long relationship (the second since we broke up) and got dumped. He always sounds like he's on the verge of killing himself, so I don't have the heart to ask him to stop calling or even to find an excuse to leave early on in the conversation. But talking to him is so AWFUL. I just don't like him. He's not interesting. In fact, he's pretty creepy and boring, and not very intelligent. I mean, he goes to a technical school. He wants to be in the army. He is totally not the kind of person I would hang out with if we lived in the same town. I only went out with him because he is nice looking. And now I don't get to look at him. So it should be over. But he won't leave me alone. Ugh.
Things in town are starting to bloom. The huge, gnarly trees that tower over the lawn of the academy have little yellow buds, and the preppies are starting to gather under them and do their homework or play frisbee. The trees in the park are blooming too. The tree Adam and I used to sit under has white flowers on it. That's the way I remember it the first time we sat there. We continued to sit there long enough for all the flowers to be replaced be leaves, and then for all the leaves to turn brown and fall off. By the last time we went to the park, Adam had to spread his coat on the ground so that we wouldn't get lost in a thick layer of dead stuff. Now all the dead stuff has gone back into the ground, and it's starting over again...
Man, It's vacation. Now I don't have anything to do for a week.
Loading comments...